Episode 306 - 7 Chefs Compete, Part 2
The sixth episode of Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on July 9, 2007. In that episode, a new team dynamic emerged for one team, and one chef lost their last chance to stay in Hell’s Kitchen. Intro On their way back upstairs, Jen told Bonnie that she put her up with Melissa because she knew she would be passed over. The red team was relieved by Ramsay’s decision of transferring Melissa to the blue team. Meanwhile, Josh welcomed Melissa, and she promised to her new team that she would never sabotage them at all. Rock, however, believed that she would still go home eventually. The red team gathered for a meeting and coldly shut out Melissa. With the three bullies gone from the red team, Bonnie believed that it was their time to shine, and they needed to step up, to which Julia agreed with. The next morning, everyone talked about New York and their restaurants, with Jen mentioning that she used to work at George Perrier in Philadelphia much to the shock of Rock. Jen admitted in a confessional that she never wanted to tell people this because their expectations of her would be too high. Team challenge The two teams got downstairs, and saw Ramsay standing next to a covered object. Ramsay asked Melissa if she was bonding with the blue team and she answered yes. Ramsay then explained that for their next challenge, he would be testing their creativity with lobster as their main ingredient, uncovering the tank next to him full of live and fresh lobster. He turned to Josh and reminded him that he failed to correctly identify lobster in the Blind Taste Challenge, so he was forced to sit out for the challenge to even both teams at 3. However, Josh was allowed to advise his team, but not to touch any lobster. With one hour to prepare their dishes, the chefs head to the tank and grabbed the live lobsters. Despite trying to get out of grabbing her lobster, Jen and Julia pushed Bonnie to do so, successfully conquering her fear. In the blue kitchen, Rock and Brad got to work on their dishes while Josh decided to give advice on Melissa's dish. In the red kitchen, Jen had to coach Julia as well as she was worried due to Julia's lack of fine-dining knowledge. Eventually, both teams completed their dishes and plated them up. The first pair up was Bonnie against Melissa in the battle of the salads. Bonnie's dish was a grilled lobster salad with baked apples which Ramsay noted was pretty ambitious grilling the lobster, but told her the dish was nice and praised her for taking the risk. Melissa's citrus herbed salad with poached lobster, which Ramsay liked the citrus taste, was disappointing because the lobster was not cooked properly. The red team won that round. The next pair up was Julia against Rock. Julia presented her lobster risotto and while Ramsay liked how the lobster was tender, he called the risotto boring as he expected a little more excitement. Rock's dish was a buttermilk fried lobster tail tempura, and Ramsay praised it for its ambition and being perfectly cooked. Rock scored a point for the blue team, tying both teams at 1. The final pair up was Jen against Brad. Jen's dish was a lobster and crab bisque with thyme, which Ramsay enjoyed. Brad also created a lobster bisque with Disaronno Chantilly. Ramsay also praised it but noted this would be a tough decision. In the end, Ramsay gave the point to Jen, and the red team won the challenge 2-1, though Ramsay told Brad that it was the hardest decision he had to make so far in the competition. Reward The red team was taken to a photoshoot for In Touch magazine. The three women got a makeover for the shoot and were joined by Ramsay. Punishment The blue team had to participate in Recycling Day, which meant going through the garbage and sorting out the recyclables. That punishment infuriated Rock, not just because the blue team lost to a simple lobster bisque, but also because he grew up in the ghetto and never had to go dumpster diving. His angry attitude shocked his teammates as they never saw him explode like that before. As the blue team sorted through the trash, Sous Chef Scott told Rock that he was needed at the photoshoot. However, it turned out that he was forced to separate the trash there as well, which only infuriated him more. Rock later claimed that he would never force his own brigade to sort through trash. Before service The red team returned from their reward and got changed into their chefs jackets. Rock was left alone to calm himself down, and he remained determined to do what he did best. Later that night, both teams got to work on prepping for that night’s service. As this was Melissa's first time working with the blue team in service, Brad made sure she was focused and Melissa herself wanted to make a good impression. In the red kitchen, the three women were focused on their work and wanted to prove that they could do service without Melissa. Ramsay had both teams lined up and told Bonnie that her grilled lobster salad was going to be on the menu that night, much to her pleasure. He also told the blue team that as the second part of their punishment, they would have to go and grab the lobster from the tank when the orders would come in the kitchen, and Josh volunteered to do it. Ramsay also warned Melissa that this was her last chance to make a comeback. With both teams at their stations, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service The first order for the red team came in and Ramsay reminded the red team that with only three members, they had to move quicker. Josh was sent out to get a lobster for the red kitchen. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay noticed that their pot of water was not boiling, and Brad revealed they just put in fresh water 5 minutes ago, much to Ramsay’s dismay. Josh sent the red team’s lobster to Julia, and the red team sent up their first order of appetizers out of the kitchen. Brad sent up his risotto, but he made too much as three dishes were brought instead of two needed. Ramsay noted that the blue team were not off to a great start and ordered them to not panic. The red kitchen continued to communicate well because of Jen's leadership, and Ramsay praised that. The red team’s customers were happy for getting food, but the blue kitchen’s customers were still waiting for their food. Melissa's scallops were too thin, and Ramsay was upset that everything she touched was screwed and reminded her that this was not the opening night. In the red kitchen, they managed to push out 28 of their appetizers and Ramsay stated that they had the best start in Hell’s Kitchen so far, and urged them to not stop. However, Bonnie's pan soon caught fire and was uncertain what to do, forcing Ramsay to come in a put the pan in the sink and lectured her on fire safety. In the blue kitchen, Josh prepared the mashed potatoes, but they turned out to be runny as he did not put enough salt into them. This angered Ramsay who compared the blue team to a bunch of fucking babies. The red team’s fast momentum continued as Jen and Bonnie were getting praise for their dishes and Sous Chef Mary-Ann urged them to keep it up. Brad sent up another order of risotto, but it turned out to be overcooked. An hour and a half into service, and the red team continued to pull ahead on entrées. Julia soon got confused on the sea bass order and panicked, but Ramsay reminded her what he was waiting at her station. When she looked unresponsive, Ramsay asked if she wanted to leave but she retorted that she wanted to stay. Melissa brought up her monkfish, but it was overcooked and Ramsay was angrier that she did not notice it when everyone else knew it was overcooked, while also saying that it looks like regurgitated dog shit. Things got even worse when Melissa revealed that she only had one more monkfish left which meant that none of the six on order would be sent out. A desperate Ramsay then had Rock move from the garnish station over to the fish station in hope that he could save the blue team’s disastrous service, forcing Melissa on the garnish station. Meanwhile, the red team got to work on their last two tickets, but an argument between Bonnie and Julia over Bonnie’s meat erupted, and Julia broke down in tears over the stress catching up to her. In the blue kitchen, they were running out of mashed potatoes and no one knew where to find more. Their problems continued when Jean-Philippe brought back an entire table of six entrées for being overcooked. That served to be the final straw for Ramsay who ordered the blue kitchen to shut down their service. Post-mortem After a lopsided dinner service, Ramsay bluntly told the blue team that a team which had 2 Sous chefs (Josh and Brad), an Executive chef (Rock), and a Line Chef (Melissa) lost to a team that had a Nanny (Bonnie), a Short Order Cook (Julia), and a Pastry Chef (Jen). Ramsay also reminded Josh that he was the only chef at the moment that still have not had a decent service, and told Brad that this service was his worst one yet. Ramsay ordered the blue team to come up with two nominations for elimination. The blue team met to discuss who they should nominate, with Melissa knowing that she would be up for elimination. Brad asked if they should base their nominations on that night's service, which would be Melissa and himself, or on overall performance, which would be Melissa and Josh. Josh argued that he should not be up for elimination, believing that he had decent services, but the blue team agreed to do nominations based on overall performance. Elimination When the blue team was lined up for elimination and Ramsay asked them if their decision was difficult, the team answered that it was, with Rock shaking his head, disagreeing. Ramsay, tired of the bullshit, called Melissa down, even before asking who the nominees were, and eliminated her on-the-spot for her worsening performances, not improving since her transfer to the blue team, and running out of chances. During her exit interview, Melissa admitted to being the worst chef in the blue team that night, and knew Ramsay sent her home for wasting her second chance. Despite Melissa's elimination, Ramsay declared he was not done yet, and called Brad and Josh down. He criticized Josh's constant poor performances and told Brad that his performance was worse than shit and that he complimented shit. Both pleaded their case on why they should stay, and despite Ramsay’s disappointment in both of them, he gave both of them another chance and ordered them to get back in line. With both teams equal to three now, Ramsay dismissed the chefs for the night. Ramsay's comment: "That was really difficult today because Brad and Josh were absolutely horrible. With Melissa, she's very assertive and she sounds like a leader but unfortunately, she doesn't cook like a leader." Category:Season 3 Category:Episodes